2 weeks at post! (written dec 17)

                It’s been two weeks since my arrival at post and I’m happy to say that I actually have things to report! Tuesday of this week (14 Dec) I began protocol, which is kind of a formal/structured way to meet the area’s officials and basically let them know that I’m here. Some of the meetings were more of a formality (police chief, other security personnel, mayor) where I just give said official the document provided by the Peace Corps that lists all of the new PCVs in the region and each of our program/host institution. Other meetings, which hopefully will be the first of many, were with people who I plan on working with in the future and can connect me to relevant community groups (Ministry of Forestry and Fauna – MINFOF, Ministry of Environmental Protection – MINEP, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development – MINADER).

 I lucked out that by chance there was a meeting at the MINFOF office in the national park I will be working with, so I was able to tag along. I say I lucked out because it sounds like trips from Poli into the park aren’t necessarily a rarity, but definitely don’t happen too often. The park is just over an hour’s drive west of the town—about 60km which I’ve been challenged to bike if/when I start working out there on my own, since there isn’t a regular form of transport on that road. En route to the park I finally saw what everyone at home’s been waiting for… WILDLIFE! As much as I wish I could say we had to stop the car for a herd of elephants, really it was just a group of monkeys hanging out… not even swinging from trees or anything, just hanging out and munching on whatever plant-matter they found of the ground. Sadly, I just caught a glimpse of them while we drove by, so no picture (yet!). The MINFOF office is just at the entrance to the park, so I didn’t actually go it, but I was told that when work commences after New Year’s, we can take a trip in and get a grand tour of everything.

The other day while reading in the “public space” (a shady spot with benches), I was befriended by two high school girls, both are seniors at the Lycée Classique (there are two high schools in town, Lycée Technique, which is more vocational-focused, and Lycée Classique, the general high school). I happened to run into them while we were both on the way to their school—I, to meet with the principal and possibly find someone to tutor me in Fulfuldé, and they, to pick up their report cards (as I found out en route, vacation commences today… “winter break,” if you will). When we got there, all of the students were standing outside for an assembly (no bleachers, but luckily plenty of trees for shade), while teachers and various school administrators read out class rankings and then proceeded to give out report cards to the top two students of every class. One 7^th grade boy was not only the top of his class, but had the best marks in the whole school and was not only praised by teachers and administrators, but also given some money as a congratulatory gift, I suppose. Even though this practice is totally foreign to anything I ever experienced at an American school, it was nice to see top students publicly acknowledged (yay, education!).

So that’s it for now. I don’t expect things to really “pick up” until January since it’s “the holidays” and well, people are on vacation and what-not. For the time being I’ll stick to what I’ve been doing—reading, getting to know people/the area at post, faire-ing le sport (see below) , motivating myself to study Fulfuldé and hopefully continuing to get my house together. 

Photos!!!

 <--train leaving Yaounde for the Grand North (last stop is Ngaoundéré, capital of the Adamaoua). En route to the north (during this particular trip), this train will stop about 3 hours away from or final destination for a total delay of about 6 hours. Why? The last 5 wagons or so (which included us of course) were detached from the front wagons, who didn't notice and couldn't be contacted due to lack of phone service)... as i've learned to say... TIA (this is africa).

 <-- A village in the Adamaoua, as seen from the train on our way up north. These houses are known as "saaré's" (the word for house in Fulfuldé).

The next two pictures two the right are both views of Poli from the top of a hill, behind my house. This hill is where people can be found faire-ing le sport (rough translation = working out) by running or hiking up and down the hill. Children also climb this hill on a daily basis looking for firewood.

A(t) Post… finally (written Dec 10)

Here I am—a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV)—almost two weeks old and with more than a week at post under my belt. Before I relay all that’s new and exciting about the Grand North, I think I owe it to any of you wonderful people who bother to check this, a brief summary of all that’s happened between September and now… or the three months we fondly refer to as “Stage”.

By the end of three months of showing up to “school” everyday, having essentially all my meals prepared for me, and living under the law that is Peace Corps admin (especially their 7pm curfew) I felt like I was leaving a weird version of some kind of summer camp (but probably with a lot more time spent at the bar than your average camper). As I mentioned in the last post (long ago) we had a routine schedule of language and technical training, with a few cultural and medical sessions thrown into the mix. Since I (fortunately and kind of surprisingly) came in with a level of French just below our swearing-in requirements, I had a month of French to “polish up” and learn rules, vocabulary, and whatever else I needed in order to reach level. These classes, along with the constant French immersion with my homestay family, drastically improved my language skills. After reaching the required level, I was able to begin studying Fulfude, the (non-official) language spoken throughout northern Cameroon, as well as much of West Africa.

            Tech training covered a range of topics including an overview of Cameroon’s climate zones, traditional farming techniques, agroforestry (A/F) techniques, environmental education, and a variety of other tools that might be useful as an agroforestry/environment “extension agent”. The more hands on part of the training included a group demo plot (which turned out to be very successful—the green beans we ate on Thanksgiving were our very own!), a tree nursery that each trainee kept outside the home of their village homestay family, and Dendro (tree ID) books. Admittedly, these last two weren’t as successful as the first, but I will note that my dendro book totally makes up for what my tree nursery (or lack thereof) was lacking. Lastly, it may be because we’re lucky, but probably because we’re just that cool, the “Agros” (as we came to call our camp as opposed to the Health or Santes) a couple of field trips: the first to the West region of Cameroon and the second to the Northwest region of Cameroon. [*I should note: “region” is like the equivalent of “state” in the U.S.—Cameroon has a total of 10 regions] Both trips served as a chance to see more of Cameroon, visit some PCVs, see A/F techniques put to use, and of course, some wonderful group bonding (while totally crammed into a questionable van and traversing the worst roads in Cameroon).

            Besides all the training, Stage was a wonderful time to get to know a lot of really great people. Outside of the classroom we could usually be found making friends with one of the local bartenders, buying some pagne (traditional fabric used to make clothes), or just kicking it with my homestay families. Homestay came with its own trials and tribulations: setting personal record time for how long I could hold my breath in the latrine, eating whatever was served to me regardless of the amount of palm oil it might be swimming in, or just restless nights (due to anything from loud rain to a mouse in my backpack), but all-in-all it I had a great experience with both homestays and truly left both with not only a feeling of family, but with a great deal of knowledge.

             I realized that in general, I through around lots of terns that are common to us, but foreign to anyone who’s not in country, so here’s some rough geography/general info that might help immensely: Cameroon is generally divided into the Grand North—containing the Extreme North, North, and Adamawa regions—where both French and Fulfulde are spoken, and the Grand South—Northwest, Southwest, West, Littoral, South, and East. Although the whole country is officially bilingual, the Northwest and Southwest are the two Anglophone regions where Pigdin (you might recognize some thanks to Shakira… “waka, waka, eh eh...it’s time for Africa”) is spoken.

            So now I’m finally at post. Things have slowed down and my time is mostly occupied with getting to know my surroundings, meeting new people, putting together my very own house (!), and in general, lots of time to myself. In terms of setting, some things are the same… there are still mamas on every corner selling beignets, the power still goes out sometimes, I still get my water from a forage (deep water well), and everyone from young girls to old men are covered head to toe in either brightly colored or simple, traditional pagne (probably even more so here than in the South). Some differences are that now along with French, everyone speaks Fulfulde; I am no longer in the tropics so it’s a much drier climate (and sometimes surprisingly chilly), and I am surrounded by a beautiful ring of hills which makes for an endlessly interesting landscape on a daily basis.

For your viewing pleasure:

 <--- marcotting = probably one of the coolest things i learned in stage. in short, some bark is shaved off a tree branch, pack the area with mulch, seal it with a plastic bag, wait for roots to grow (in the bag), cut under the area marcotted, place in polypot (plastic baggie filled with soil) and keep in a tree nursery or just plant! AWESOME.

 fellow PCV (then PCT) teaching a high school class about the water cycle, water pollution, pertinent general environmental education -->

 <--learning how to stir couscous de mais (corn flour + water) with my host grandma in the village

<--Agro stage class, right before site visit!